Mt. Lebanon graduate directs Pittsburgh Opera’s ‘Hansel and Gretel’
The musical version of the gingerbread-children fairytale “Hänsel und Gretel” has seen countless productions since Richard Strauss conducted its 1893 premiere, and the Pittsburgh Opera is ready for its own rendition.
Directed by 2000 Mt. Lebanon High School graduate Crystal Manich, “Hansel and Gretel” opens Nov. 3 and has further performances scheduled for Nov. 6, 9 and 11.
“I always try to come back when they ask me, because it’s my hometown opera and I started my career here,” Manich said. “It always feels like I’m coming home to more than just my family, who still lives here.”
Since directing only the second American production of George Frideric Handel’s “Richard the Lionheart” for Pittsburgh Opera in January 2017, she has contributed her talents to numerous other companies, with this year a particularly busy one: “Madama Butterfly” with Opera Columbus, “Rigoletto” with the Wolf Trap Opera and “Albert Herring” with the Boston University Opera Institute, to name a few.
In Pittsburgh, she’s working with a cast that features current members and alumni of the opera’s resident artist program.
“That makes it really feel like a family show for us while we’ve been rehearsing it, and it’s appropriate because ‘Hansel and Gretel’ is a family show, in as of itself,” she said. “The show is meant to be for families, and a family is putting it on together.”
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Ashley Fabian
Singing the role of Gretel is Ashley Fabian, a second-year resident artist who is living in Baldwin Borough.
“She has a really beautiful voice that really has a lot of clarity,” Manich said. “And she’s the perfect height to play Gretel. She looks the part.”
Fabian, who stands at an even five feet tall, is enjoying the experience.
“The fun part about singing Gretel is that you get to portray a child, which presents its own challenges,” she said. You have to keep up all the energy and move with the energy of a child.”
And working alongside her are many role models, so to speak.
“The children’s chorus we’re working with is fantastic, and they have great talent. Most of them are around my height or taller, so it’s a little funny. I fit right in, I guess.”
A Charleston, S.C., native who came to Pittsburgh Opera in 2017 after earning her master’s degree from the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, Fabian is preparing for another lead role. She will perform as Ilia, daughter of King Priam of Troy, in “afterWARds: Mozart’s Idomeneo Reimagined,” scheduled for late January and early February.
“I’m really looking forward to it because this is a role I’ve always wanted to do,” she said. “But opera companies don’t tend to do this opera as much because of the length.”
Director David Paul, she explained, pared the original to a core set of characters while retaining much of the music as a means to make the 18th-century opera seria more accessible to today’s audiences.
As for the work of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Manich has a project lined up in the summer as the newly named artistic director of Mill City Summer Opera in Minneapolis, directing the comedic “Così fan tutte.”
On the nearer horizon, she will be working on her fourth production for the Utah Opera by directing Vincenzo Bellini’s tragedy “Norma,” using couture-inspired costumes and innovative projections.
Manich, who grew up in Peters Township before moving to Mt. Lebanon in high school, also is part of a longer-term project with playwright Caridad Svich for an adaptation of René Marqués’ “La Carreta (The Oxcart).”
“My family is Puerto Rican, so I’ve grown up with a lot of literature from the island. And that play is the most important play from the Puerto Rican historical view,” she explained. “We had interest from a family and some producers who wanted us to do a new adaptation, which we did, and we did a reading of it in New York last year to generate interest. We’re currently trying to find partnerships in theaters across the U.S. to see if we can do a production.”
Marqués wrote the play in 1953.
“But it rings true to a lot of issues that are still happening when you’re talking about ethnic family stories,” Manich said. “So we feel like it’s a great time to do the play.”
For more information about “Hansel and Gretel,” visit www.pittsburghopera.org.